Ian MacAuslan

Biography

Ian MacAuslan is a consultant in OPM’s poverty and social protection portfolio, having joined OPM in 2007.  He holds an MPhil with Distinction in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), and a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Oxford.  Ian specialises in research on and the design of social protection programmes.   He is currently leading an evaluation of Concern Zimbabwe’s emergency cash transfer programme, leading a review of children’s interests in Senegal’s Poverty Reduction Strategy paper and budgets, and is managing the qualitative component of evaluation of the Hunger Safety Net Programme, a DFID-funded cash transfer programme in northern Kenya. He recently led a qualitative evaluation of Concern Worldwide’s Post Election Violence Recovery cash transfer programme in Kenya that provides a qualitative assessment of operations (targeting, payment and management) and impact, using focus groups and semi-structured interviews, and the qualitative component of OPM’s evaluation of the Government of Kenya and UNICEF’s conditional cash transfer for Orphans and Vulnerable Children.  Previously at OPM, Ian has led participatory research on child labour in four states in India for UNICEF, been part of teams evaluating the Poverty Eradication Action Plan in Uganda, assessing cash transfers and community-based programmes for people living with HIV/AIDS in Malawi and Uganda, and developing a strategy for social protection for children in Tanzania. 

While at the IDS, Ian was part of teams evaluating for UNICEF the outcomes of take home rations in communities affected by HIV and AIDS in Malawi, preparing guidelines for DFID food security and health advisers on the linkages between HIV, livelihoods, food security and nutrition, conducting the preparatory phase of DFID’s social transfer policy, exploring the history of social protection in Africa, preparing a paper on linkages between social protection and growth in sub-Saharan Africa, and reviewing social protection in Malawi.  Prior to joining IDS, Ian led a year-long qualitative research project with adolescent migrant labourers in India.  He has published refereed articles and several reports on social protection.